The Nationals have designated Daniel Cabrera for assignment. That's fine. He's not at all effective and really can't help the Nats in any way shape or form at present. What's not so fine is the way acting-GM Mike Rizzo described the move:
"You have to put your best 25 players on the roster that are giving you a chance to win. I look beyond the contract and look at the execution and performance of the player, and it wasn't up to par. I was tired of watching him."
I realize that Rizzo may simply be giving voice to the sentiments of all Nats' fans, but its rather unprofessional and classless for a team executive to say that he was "tired of watching" a guy. Cabrera just got fired. How would you like it if your boss fired you and said "I was tired of watching that guy process expense reports?" Better yet, how would you like to still have your job and hear your boss talk that way about the guy in the next cubicle over that he just canned? It's unnecessarily dismissive. It casts an employee's termination as a function of the boss' subjective whims rather than some objective, performance-based metric. It creates an environment in which everyone still around probably wonders what the boss is thinking about them too, which has to be a morale killer.
I realize that Cabrera will probably manage to somehow soldier through this terrible emotional abuse with the couple of million bucks he's still owed this year, but both he and the remaining Nats players deserve better than that from Rizzo.
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Rizzo is just another dolt in an organization filled with them. The only place this guy could get a job is with the Nats. What does that tell you. Enjoy being away from Rizzo, Cabrera. You're lucky.
Just because he didn't reference some "objective, performance-based metric" doesn't mean it wasn't used to make this decision. Maybe "I was tired of watching him" summarized the reasons behind his performance-based termination.
Hey, Dan ----- Spot on ! The wording may have been less than most proficient, but it described the entire scenario precisely. I say, kudos to Rizzo for his depiction of Cabrera. Maybe more of our "stars", in all sports, should be held up to greater scrutiny. Many of them openly act as if they are doing fans a favor by even bothering to make any attempts at professionalism. Once again, WAY overpaid athletes, behaving like spoiled children. I am all for cutting salaries WAY DOWN and if they are still compensated in this manner, eliminating per diem food expenses for these pampered divas. Don't forget --- it's GAMES these guys are playing !!! Much more deserving are our police officers, fire fighters and military personnel. Give them larger salaries --- MUCH larger.
Craig Calcaterra (WHO???) is a stain on the the hallowed newsprint of all sportswriters past, implying that Baseball people should be more politically correct.
Somehow I don't believe H.G. Salsinger or Chilly Doyle would be in agreement, and might even take our pseudo scribe to task. (you can look them up author...)
Why can't Americans have one sacred bastion where we don't have to speak nicely of or think good thoughts about every stinkin' underachiever making 3 times in a season what Joe blow on the street needs a lifetime to accumulate? Why can't we say what's on our mind? Casey Stengel and Leo the Lip would be spinning in their graves, and God only knows what Branch Rickey might say.
Why does everyone have to apologize for saying something they feel. Emotions have no place in sports? they are reserved for the fan and player, but not the guy in the upstairs office? General managers and owners are not allowed emotions or free speech for that matter?
Next Calcaterra will have us stop using wooden bats because he has become enamored with the tree he is hugging, or maybe we should impose quotas for White, Black, Hispanic and "others" players per team. After all that would be fair, affirmative action for pitchers, and for catchers! ...his rational and those of his ilk, seem to have no qualms about forcing their ideas on me, while my opinion counts not.
Baseball is an institution, deep in traditions and steeped in the lore of those who came before. None of those old guys were PC...hell, Marge Schott wasn't even close to civil in some cases, but they were mostly good people, good for the game and some were even nice to almost everyone!
Let us have one place we can shoot from the lip and not care if we call a spade a spade. Let today's baseball be a little like the Baseball of old, those old timers did something right...
but none were politically correct, and they built a wonderful thing.
Craig Calcaterra (WHO???) is a stain on the the hallowed newsprint of all sportswriters past, implying that Baseball people should be more politically correct.
Somehow I don't believe H.G. Salsinger or Chilly Doyle would be in agreement, and might even take our pseudo scribe to task. (you can look them up author...)
Why can't Americans have one sacred bastion where we don't have to speak nicely of or think good thoughts about every stinkin' underachiever making 3 times in a season what Joe blow on the street needs a lifetime to accumulate? Why can't we say what's on our mind? Casey Stengel and Leo the Lip would be spinning in their graves, and God only knows what Branch Rickey might say.
Why does everyone have to apologize for saying something they feel. Emotions have no place in sports? they are reserved for the fan and player, but not the guy in the upstairs office? General managers and owners are not allowed emotions or free speech for that matter?
Next Calcaterra will have us stop using wooden bats because he has become enamored with the tree he is hugging, or maybe we should impose quotas for White, Black, Hispanic and "others" players per team. After all that would be fair, affirmative action for pitchers, and for catchers! ...his rational and those of his ilk, seem to have no qualms about forcing their ideas on me, while my opinion counts not.
Baseball is an institution, deep in traditions and steeped in the lore of those who came before. None of those old guys were PC...hell, Marge Schott wasn't even close to civil in some cases, but they were mostly good people, good for the game and some were even nice to almost everyone!
Let us have one place we can shoot from the lip and not care if we call a spade a spade. Let today's baseball be a little like the Baseball of old, those old timers did something right...
but none were politically correct, and they built a wonderful thing.
Polite and professional is not the same as politically correct, Airedale. You may think that baseball players should take whatever crap people give them because they're playing a game, but it's a job too -- and a highly competitive and ego-driven one at that. You can bet that they don't appreciate their boss saying that they were "tired of watching them," as I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it if you were fired and your boss said that about you.
Mike Rizzo, classless? Maybe. Honest? Yes, and refreshing to may ears.
He got designated for assignment to the minors. He didn't get fired. The way most of the major league contracts are structured he probably doesn't even take a pay cut. There is absolutely no comparison between his situation and the guy on the street who loses his job. He still has a job and is most likely making the same money. If this guy is offended by the GM saying that he's "tired of wathing him" then he probably doesn't have the mental make up to deal with the pressure of working at the highest level of an organization anyway.